Streetscapes/The Downtown Athletic Club

A Home for Heisman Trophy in Its Art Deco Interior

By CHRISTOPHER GRAY

Published: January 12, 1997

EVEN for the 1920's it was a roaringly ambitious plan, a skyscraping club and home-away-from-home for downtown businessmen. Now it appears that the Downtown Athletic Club, completed in 1930, will sell its building to a hotel operator who will keep the home of the Heisman trophy right where it is, and restore the spectacular Art Deco interiors.

The skyscraping age brought rooftop lunch clubs to the Wall Street area, but with land so valuable social institutions were generally tenants, not builders. In 1926, a group of downtown businessmen formed the Downtown Athletic Club, first occupying rooms in the Singer building, at 149 Broadway, which no longer exists. From later reports it is clear that these men, headed by Schuyler Van Vechten Hoffman, a financier, had an entirely separate building in mind from the start.

A survey of members indicated that 60 percent of them thought that an unobstructed view of the harbor was critical, as long as it was within a five-minute walk of Trinity Church. In 1927, the club announced plans to build a 20-story building on a 78- by 179-foot midblock plot facing West and Washington Streets, just south of Morris Street.

In 1928, this was revised to 44 stories and DOTAC, the club's newsletter, showed plans by the architects Starrett & Van Vleck for a tall, classically-styled structure, a cross between the Sherry-Netherland Hotel and the building at 40 Wall Street now owned by Donald Trump.

In 1929, the design was scaled down to 38 stories, and the traditional styling was discarded in favor ''a sane, modern design . . . a great Modern Club House,'' as DOTAC put it. This translated into a huge rectangular box on end, faced with orange brick.

But inside the rooms were in high-style Art Deco, custom designed by Barnet Phillips and Duncan Hunter. The Decorative Furnisher said that ''in every detail they are to special designs'' in brown, black, turquoise, silver and, as a unifying color, ''warm putty gray.''

The dining room, lounge, and other principal rooms had carpets with geometric patterns, murals of Meso-American designs, and unusual lighting designs. The scale and sophistication of the work made it one of the most developed Art Deco interiors in New York.

But on opening day in September 1930 the club's 3,826 members were certainly interested in facilities more than styling. The 531-foot-high building had billiard and card rooms on the third floor, handball and squash courts on the fourth and sixth floors, bowling on the fifth floor, a full-floor miniature golf course on the seventh floor, a gym on the eighth floor, medical rooms on the 10th floor, a swimming pool on the 12th floor, and eating and lounging rooms above that. From the 20th to the 35th floor were 143 sleeping rooms for businessmen who worked late.

John W. Heisman, the influential football coach, was the athletic director, and the club is still home to the sport's Heisman Trophy, awarded annually to the best college football player.

At the same time the Downtown Athletic Club was going up another developer, Alfred Rheinstein, was building an office building just to the north at 21 West Street, also designed by Starrett & Van Vleck. The club sets back slightly so that 21 West Street has southerly views, but it is not clear if that was serendipity or prior arrangement.

The stated membership goal for the new club was 5,000 members, and DOTAC continually encouraged members to bring in friends. But in 1936 there were only 3,500 members, and the club filed for bankruptcy, claiming assets of $4.9 million, and lost control of the building. Of that amount, $4.3 million was attributed to the land and building -- on which there was a $4.6 million mortgage. The club claimed an operating loss of $231,000 in 1935, and other records indicate the club had been in default on its real estate taxes since 1932.

Real estate records suggest that the club recovered possession of its building only in 1963, and later renovations have stripped the club of most of its original finishes. In December a veteran employee in the lobby recognized none of the lighting fixtures, furniture or murals shown in old photographs of the club. The miniature golf course is ''long gone,'' he said.

IN the last year developers have been purchasing downtown sites for residential conversions -- such as the ones planned for the office buildings at 21 and 75 West Street, once the home of The New York Post -- and many architects report that developers have approached them about converting the Downtown Athletic Club.

Sal D'Angelo, the general manager of the club, refused to discuss any club matters, but Howard Michaels, chairman of the Carlton Group, says that he is the club's real estate adviser and confirms that something is in the wind. ''But I need about another week to discuss it with you,'' he said.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a well-known New York hotel operator who has completed several historic preservation hotel projects said that the club had been asking for bids on the property over the last several years, and has recently winnowed 25 applicants down to a final choice. He said that contract negotiations were nearly finished to sell the entire club to a hotel operator, who would rent out the rooms but keep the club in place. Guests would then have full use of the club's facilities.

He also said that Rafael Vinoly had been chosen to restore most of the club's Art Deco interiors at a cost of $20 million. The successful bidder, he said, is trying to get permission to rename the transient operation the ''Hotel Heisman.''

Photos: The 38-story Downtown Athletic Club in 1931, a year after opening. (Office for Metropolitan History); Its Art Deco interiors housed lounges, above, handball and squash courts, a swimming pool and 143 sleeping rooms. (Office for Metropolitan History); Marquee notes that club is home of the Heisman Trophy, named for first athletic director, John W. Heisman. (Nancy Seisel for The New York Times)